Didn't we pass a castle back down the road a few miles?

I went shoe shopping yesterday, and discovered something that I hadn't really noticed until I was trying on different pairs: I no longer have to hold my breath when I tie my shoes. It used to be that my gut was so large that the only way I could lean forward to tie my shoes was to take a deep breath, exhale completely, and then lean down and not breathe in until I had completed the knot. Sometimes it would take two attempts per foot, and I would be gasping for air by the time I was done. More often than not, rather than go through that I would just hoist my foot up over my other knee and tie it there, which would result in a weird off-center knot that tended not to be tight enough and so it would unravel at some later point. That was such a normal part of my life, and something that crept up slowly over time, so that I didn't really actively notice it. But yesterday as I was trying on different shoes I suddenly realized that I was bent forward tying them like a normal human being, and breathing normally at the same time. Like, I could continue it inhale and exhale regularly while doubled over with no effort at all. Amazing! So, even if I were to achieve nothing else from this project, that's a huge win.

And yes, of course I watched some Doctor Who this morning, specifically the first half of The Curse of Peladon. It was awesome. Let's talk about that.

Right off the bat I knew I was going to like this story, the moment I saw it was written by Brian Hayles (The Smugglers, The Ice Warriors, The Seeds of Death). I was not disappointed. The setting is the castle of the King of the planet Peladon, a world that is on the cusp of joining the Galactic Federation pending the outcome of an evaluation from several visiting delegates. There is court intrigue as the young King's two closest advisors have opposing views towards joining the Federation. The pro-Federation advisor winds up dead by the end of the first scene, apparently at the hands (claws?) of mythical monster named Aggedor, just as the alien delegates are arriving. Meanwhile outside the castle, which sits atop a craggy mountain peak, the TARDIS materializes in the dark on a narrow ledge halfway down the cliff in the middle of a rainstorm. As the Doctor and Jo exit, the TARDIS topples off the edge of the cliff and falls down into the ravine below. With nowhere else to go, the two head for the castle in search of help and are promptly mistaken as the Earth delegates. From there on out there is no end to the intrigue and shenanigans.

I love this story so much! The first alien delegate is Alpha Centauri, whom the Doctor at one point describes to Jo as a "hermaphroditic hexapod". Next is Arcturus, who is a green tentacle-covered head suspended beneath a glass dome atop a motorized tank of a body. Then there are a pair of Ice Warriors (of course, it's a Brian Hayle story). So immediately it is just a smorgasbord of rubber-suit alien goodness. On top of that, the role of King Peladon is played by David Troughton, the son of Second Doctor Patrick Troughton, and he does a bang-up job. And finally, Jo Grant gets to pretend to be a Princess, and she totally rocks it.

Speaking of Jo, it is worth pointing out that she is sensibly dressed in a lovely formal dress for this story (which is part of how she is mistaken for a Princess), having been about to go on a date with Captain Yates before the Doctor waylaid her for a quick test run of the newly-repaired TARDIS. She looks beautiful in it, and it is much more appropriate than the micro mini skirt she work in the last story. Although, on that point, I will at least give props to Jo in the sense that, if she is going to wear a skirt that short, at least she went the extra mile and wore red underpants that perfectly matched her red scarf. Day of the Daleks may have been boring as hell, but at least the dads at home were kept happy back in the winter of 1972.

So anyway, where I left off the Doctor has just been sentenced to death for trespassing inside the sacred shrine of Aggedor, so I have no doubt that tomorrow morning's viewing will be the end of the series forever what with the Doctor being dead and all. We'll see. I am definitely looking forward to it. No joke, this is easily my favorite Third Doctor story so far.